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In general, merging two very short and similar articles makes sense.
However, I see a problem here: "Mass fraction" is a well-defined
quantity (see IUPAC definition), whereas "percentage solution" seems to
be some imprecise term apparently used by biologists. I fear that
merging the articles will only increase confusion. I make an alternative
suggestion: Convert "percentage solution" into a disambiguation page
with 3 entries:
Claiming that the terms "weight percent" or "weight-weight percent" are obsolete ignores the fact that they are quite widely used in industry to refer to mass fraction. While I understand encouraging using true IUPAC nomenclature, the "obsolescence" of these terms should not be mis-represented — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ohenn (talk • contribs) 22:17, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The redirect w/w redirects to this article, and Percentage solution says to come to this article for an explanation of "% w/w". But I find no explanation of what is meant by these expressions in this article. Does "% w/w" mean the same thing as "wt%"? Is there an explanation somewhere else on Wikipedia? Should an explanation be added to this article?
For example, if a saline solution has a salt content of 20% w/w, is that 20% salt mass per unit of mixed saline solution mass or 20% salt mass per unit of water mass? Assuming it is the former, I just edited the article to say it.
Yes, indeed. Like "wt%", "% w/w" is just another way to (incorrectly) describe mass fraction.
Yes, the denominator refers to solution, not to water. This is already mentioned in the first sentence of the article: "...total mass ... of the mixture...".